Montiel said he has no help beyond his sister, who assists with the programme's aesthetics.

'I'm also working to develop it for the BlackBerry as a lot of people have them in Venezuela,' he added.

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming blamed the shortage of toilet tissue on 'excessive demand' built up as a result of 'a media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country'.

'The revolution will bring the country the equivalent of 50million rolls of toilet paper,' he said last month.

'We are going to saturate the market so that our people calm down.'

Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said the government was also addressing the lack of foreign currency, which has resulted in the suspension of foreign supplies of raw materials, equipment and spare parts to Venezuelan companies, disrupting their production.

'We are making progress ... we have to work very hard,' he said.

Fleming said monthly consumption of toilet paper was normally 125million rolls, but that current demand 'leads us to think that 40 million more are required.'